Miami Hoops: The Ticket That Keeps On Giving

Feb. 7, 2013 6:45 p.m. ET

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The University of Miami's men's basketball team wasn't exactly the hottest ticket in town on Jan. 13. At the time, the Hurricanes were unranked, and the athletic department's marketing wing decided to offer a deal: $75 tickets purchased for Miami's matchup with Maryland would be valid at every home game until Miami lost.

There was one problem with this otherwise brilliant promotion: Miami hasn't lost since.

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The University of Miami student section in 2008.
Cal Sport Media/Zuma Press

The Hurricanes not only beat Maryland but also treated Duke like a traffic light in a twister, thrashing the then-No. 1 team by 27 points. They followed up that historic beat down with home wins against Florida State and Boston College. Now they're ranked No. 8 in the country and host North Carolina on Saturday to extend their ACC record to 10-0. "None of us imagined we would continue to go undefeated into February," said Blake James, Miami's interim athletic director.

Are the 13 Miami diehards who bought 24 tickets actually getting a good value? Yes and no. The cheapest tickets at Miami's five home games were resold on the secondary market for a total of $78 with fees, the lowest of any top-10 team, according to SeatGeek data. (Just to get in the doors of Cameron Indoor Stadium would've cost Duke fans more than $1,000 over the last five games.) So if fans had pounced early on those prices, they would have saved enough with their $75 tickets to buy…a soda. But the sum of the average resale price for Miami tickets in that time was $240—and it will only increase if the Hurricanes keep winning.

In fact, Miami's athletic department offered the same deal this week before its Tuesday win. This time, 26 people bought 60 tickets.

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